it's difficult for me to go downtown on business anymore

it's difficult for me to go downtown on business anymore

fiction
edward w pritchard

It's difficult for me to go downtown on business anymore; I am always dragging this heavy fire hose around. It's awkward to drag the fire hose down the streets and alleys and it's annoying to always have a fire hose with you as you try to attend to one's business affairs. When I took the bus to go downtown to meet Jimmi Kilgore about an insurance opportunity I felt someone staring at me as I sat there in my seat; exactly then I realized I had that heavy hose with me blocking the aisle of the Main Street bus number 56 .

Sometimes it's second nature to drag the fire hose about. When I got to the vicinity 3104 and 1/2 East High Street for my meeting with Jimmi Kilgore the public employees had the street blocked again. The foreman said it was a ten mile walk to get over to  East High from where I was. That's when I noticed that the hose I found myself dragging was being fed out in lengths from a central station there at Main and High. By studying carefully the lengths and coils in the firehose I carried about I was able to determine a pattern in the lay of landscape there in the central business district. I avoided the ten mile detour and got to my meeting easily at 3104 and 1/2 E High in plenty of time for my ten o'clock with Jimmi Kilgore.

Jimmi Kilgore was not at the hamburger shop. The Hamburger station there as it's called has no stools or chairs, and is open air. You stand as you order and eat. The owner said Jimmi was out of the Country now in Italy. The owner gave me Jimmi's phone number from a ledger he kept there on his counter. I will call Jimmi soon and try again to reschedule our business meeting in a week or so.

When I got on the bus to head back home after my business meeting I noticed that the City employees at the corner of Main and East High, there at the Hose division of the City Hose works, were feeding out lengths of hose so the bus I was riding on wouldn't tangle or snap the hose I carried as we headed back to my section of the City.
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